Conference presentation

How do you make the transtition between free to paid presenter?

11 November 2006

I attended a keynote presentation this week which made me think how people make that leap to getting paid vast amounts of money based on their life experiences or achievements. This particular speaker was successful in her own right, but failed to link her experiences with the conference, and that of the audience. The result was a presentation that failed completely, with the audience quickly losing interest, and the speaker losing complete credibility. This made me think of what I, as a speaker, or you as a conference organiser,need to consider to ensure success.

To begin, ensure that the speaker's credentials fit the topic in question e.g. if the conference is on the Scotish development, ensure your speaker has some Scotish roots, brief the speaker in advance on the expectations, background and agenda for the day, and ask them to prepare a detailed storyboard of how they attend to address the topic, and with what visual aids. Ask what level of interaction the speaker expects (crowds theory dictates that audience participation over 50 rarely works).Depending on the event, and reputation, ask for the speaker to perform a dry run, if they are unable to do this, ask for a video of a recent performace and decide whether they would benefit from personal coaching as business experience and being able to create powerful presentations rarely go hand in hand.

This particular event was only marred by this one speaker, who to this day continues to have her name banded around as an example of how not to present, and sadly with public speaking engagements, the network is quite small, and you will be judged by your last experience, so put the effort in, do your research and ensure that all risks are mitigate before a single word is spoken.

Ends

Notes to editors:

The Oatmeal Group is a UK company specializing in providing communication excellence to the executive workplace. The Oatmeal Group is served through four business divisions, consultancy, training, marketing and adventures.

More information on The Oatmeal Group can be found on the company website at www.oatmealgroup.com

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